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 Bob Miner and myself have been hiking Hell Hollow in Voluntown, CT. and finding some nice sites.

This one is located on an island in a swamp (see the map below) a quarter of a mile northwest of the Hell Hollow site posted here.

We were doing some exploring on the edge of the swamp when we started seeing stone rows in the swamp.

Easy to miss if you're not paying attention. (click images to enlarge)

There are four rows on this side of the swamp. Two of them are pictured here.

(watch the video at the end of this post for more )

We got to a point where we could see a hill on the other side and decided to try to get across.

In some places,the water was 2+ feet deep. After several minutes of jumping from rock to rock , we made it to the other side.

At the base of the hill there is a stone row that goes all the way around enclosing the site.

The picture below was taken from the base of the hill looking back to where we crossed. This is from the east side of the hill.

 Below is the row on the north side.

Below is looking west

And finally the row on the south end.

The site is surrounded by wetlands.

Below are a few more images of the stone rows.

The most common feature inside the walled compound are enclosures.

The smallest enclosure is simply two boulders with a wall built on one end connecting them.

Below is a view showing the interior.

Below is the largest enclosure from a distance.

Below is a close-up.

Below is another small enclosure.

This enclosure (below) is build against a flat faced boulder. This is becoming common in Rhode Island with five or six at Cannonchet and one at Snake Den.

Below shows the interior from the top of the boulder.

The next few pictures are random shots taken around the site.

Everything including the layout of the site is oriented towards the south and south west.

Below is a video showing some of the rows in the swamp.

Blog post and images by Catherine of Johnston, Rhode Island.

View from summit of Neutaconkanut Hill. Canonicus and Miantonomi never imagined this view when they used this hill as the boundary of their land treaty with Roger Williams.

A short walk, and there are stone rows and bent trees. Stone rows and walls run all across the hill, and surround the swampy pond near the radio towers.

Propped boulders on top of an outcrop. A nearby sign reads "monument" but there is no explanation.

Two propped boulders at the foot of an outcrop.

A bent sapling.

About 250 feet from Plainfield Street, a huge split boulder with wedged stones, and surrounding cairns.

Close-up of the split filled boulder.

These rock piles were found near the split boulder.

Catherine added
It's quite amazing to see all these structures 
surrounded by urban Providence and Johnston!

Bob Miner and I were driving down a forest road today coming back from Hell Hollow when Bob got a glimpse of this little beauty. 

It's 150 feet from the road. How he managed to see it is beyond me. Sometimes I think these sites are finding us more then us finding them.

 Below is a close-up.

There's a small niche on the other side.

There are several small ground piles and short stone rows nearby. We had just finished hiking in Hell Hollow and decided to leave this area for another day.

Later, after I sort through my pictures and videos, I'll be posting a walled in ceremonial site that we found in Hell Hollow. This new site is only a half mile from the site I posted last weekend.

The  Narragansetts called this spring  "The Great Spring" 

In the video below, you can see and hear the water bubbling out from the ground.

The resulting brook was dammed a few hundred feet down stream creating a small pond. The dam and spillway is on the west side of the pond. Following the brook from the spillway for another 400 or 500 feet  it passes by the front of a large chamber. The lintel over the entrance is 11 feet long and 3 feet wide. The outside of the entrance is 4 feet high and 4 feet wide at the top step. The entrance faces south.

At the bottom of the steps, the opening is 4 feet wide and 6 feet high.

The interior dimensions are 8 feet wide,6 feet high and 20 feet long with corbelled side walls and flat roof capstones.

None of the stones used in the construction were drilled and split. There is no vent on the roof.

This stone row is near the top a slope leading down to Hell Hollow. The row is only about 75 feet long and runs North/South.

On the side of the slop and in the hollow, there are more short stone rows and numerous rock piles.

Below is a rock pile in front of a boulder.The dark area on the boulder is embedded quartz. It looked like most of the quartz has been removed. You can see the above row in the background.

This split boulder is in the hollow.

Another short stone row and a couple of rock on rocks. The top rock of the one in the center is propped.

Below is a close up of the small cairn showing how the top rock is being supported .

Another short stone row  near the bottom of the slop. The boulder is part of the row.This one is 100 feet long and also runs North/South

 Some of the rock piles at the site.

Looks like the head of a snake coming out of this split boulder.

Here's another North/South stone row. This one is only 25 feet long. This seems to mark the end of the site.

The Miner's Farm is rich in native stone work. Some examples of whats on the farm would include a nice platform cairn, a turtle cairn, small chambers and numerous rock piles and effigies. Some pictures can be found HERE.

Bob's newest discovery is a serpent effigy found just a few feet beyond his farm's property line. The serpent is about 100 feet long. The head is propped up over a small spring feed stream. There is a row of three stones connecting the serpent's head with a split boulder. This construction is difficult to photograph, but I think Bob's pictures capture it clearly.

Below is the serpent with the head in the foreground traveling towards the west. The rocks to the left with the meter stick, link to a split boulder.

Serpent Effigy

The next two pictures are of the head.

Serpent's head

Head and the split boulder.

Close up of the row of stones between the head and the split boulder.

"Don't it always seem to go".....

Here's some small, well built cairns, that have stood the test of time for God knows how many years.

These are the survivors.

"you don't know what you got till it's gone" ...

And here are some of the casualties.

There's no way of knowing how many ....

A neighboring property owner told me that this is going to be a horse farm..... 

Nobody seems to be aware of any permits being pulled......

 Yes, the local tribe has been notified.....

This new "horse farm" stops a tenth of a mile from the Canonchet chambers.

The Hopkinton Land Trust was in negotiations to purchase the property around the chambers, but I've heard they are having a hard time making a deal.

Hopefully the chambers and surrounding stone work will be left untouched.

While using Bing Maps to look at a previously unexplored area of Canonchet, I spotted this wall. I knew I had to go and check it out.

Click on the image below.  The wall is centered in the image.

 The wall is about 100 feet long.

The videos at the bottom of this post shows the wall better then these stills.

Fifty feet north there's a propped boulder and lots of cairns.

The number of rockpiles and cairns in the area is typical of Canonchet.

 There's a pond a quarter of a mile south east of the wall. To get to the pond I had to force my way through some thick mountain laurel finding more rock piles  scattered through out the laurel and in small clearings.

Finally, I broke out of the laurel and descended down a slop to the pond finding more cairns.

Below is a cairn built against a boulder.

Below is a close up.  The center is hollow to about 15 inches deep.

Below is a video of the wall.

This boulder is in West Greenwich, Rhode Island and is similar to symbol rock and millenium rock at Camp Yawgoog in Rockville, Rhode Island and the rock on the Miners Farm in Hopkinton, Rhode Island.

The question is, are these real petroglyphs , a natural occurrence that was enhanced by man, or all natural?

I have a hard time believing that these are in fact petroglyphs. Why should we assume that the native people in this area only drew these variations of circles?

Natural but enhanced by man, maybe, but I'm going with natural.

Three years ago, there was a breif but interesting discussion on Peter's Rock Piles Blog. http://rockpiles.blogspot.com/search?q=yawgoog+petroglyphs

Check it out and come to your own conclusions. Be sure to read the comments.

 A lot of imagery in this unusual boulder. On top there seems to be a bird's head. Also a human face straight on and a head  in profile on the right.

The boulder is on the side of a hill . I'm sure the boulder influenced the placement of this site. At the base of the hill, Catherine found this small enclosure built on the side of an outcrop.This is becoming a common type of structure here in Rhode Island.

Below is what I would call the highlight of the site. I've seen a lot of split boulders in Rhode Island, but this is the first I've seen with only pieces of quartz placed in the split.

Below are some pictures of other structures found in the area.

 Below is a nice little boulder cairn.

Catherine from Johnston, RI sent in these pictures of a drilled boulder that she found in the Johnston Town Forest. Typically, there would only be one or two holes drilled for blasting. This boulder has four holes. The five pointed star drill holes are three inches in diameter and were drilled for blasting.

The five pointed star hole is rare. It is also rare to find a boulder with more then two blast holes in it.

After all the work that went into drilling the boulder, and yet it wasn't blown up. You have to wonder why.

 You'll need Adobe Reader to view these files.

The Narragansett Dawn

A newsletter edited by Princess Redwing and Ernest Hazard and published by the Narragansett Tribe of Indians in 1935 and 1936. It includes short articles by a variety of writers on the culture, history, and politics of the Narragansett Indians. It also includes religious and poetic writing, lessons in the Narragansett language, advice from community leaders, and a "milestones" section documenting births, deaths, and other life transitions.  Look under additional files for a list of all newsletters.

Indian Names of Places in Rhode Island

Pamphlet documenting Indian place names of Rhode Island compiled by Usher Parsons, M.D. for the Rhode Island Historical Society; Providence: Knowles, Anthony & Co., Printers, 1861.

Historical Collection of the Indians in New England.

An account of the Indians of New England by Daniel Gookin, a magistrate of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Published in 1792.

 This has to be the most spectacular pedistalled boulder I've see in my area of exploration.

The boulder is located on an outcrop overlooking a vernal pool. It's being supported at three points.

The light colored boulder on the left ( not quartz) and the small rock under it is supporting . The long flat faced stone next to it to the right is not supporting.

You can see one stone supporting the right side. There is a pair of support stones on the left side in back.( see image below)

Double support stones

The following images were taken while moving left to right around the boulder.

Also on the outcrop, there are two boulders each propped up with single stones.

Fifty feet south of the pedistalled boulder and still on the outcrop, there's this small structure.

Heading north and off of the outcrop, there's a huge propped boulder on bedrock.

Below is a close up

Stone row between boulders.

Stone row going through a split boulder.